Mother of man killed during Croatian War of Independence waits for justice 23 years on

As the tides of war ebbed and flowed across the Balkans, two middle-aged men and an elderly woman sat in a house in the small Croatian town of Petrinja.

They were apprehensive, and they had reason to be.

It was November 1991, and as Croatia wrenched itself from the grip of the communist state of Yugoslavia, local Serbs had armed themselves and rebelled against the new, independent Croatian state.

There was a knock on the door, and the woman, Kristina Siftar, opened it to find two young men. According to Mrs Siftar, she knew one of them - Predrag Japranin, a local Serb who had gone to school with her granddaughter.

She says she also recognised Mr Japranin because he was missing his right hand, the result of an ill-advised youthful experiment with dynamite at a wedding.

When asked by 7.30, Mr Japranin said he was bewildered by the suggestion of his involvement in the men's deaths.

He also denied serving in any armed group, saying his missing hand meant he was unable to fight.

But witness recollections and documentary evidence suggest otherwise.

The Serbs who rebelled against the Croatian government in 1991 carved out their own mini-republic, dubbed Serbian Krajina, and held the territory for four years.

In 1992, the Croatian government in Zagreb charged Mr Japranin, his half-brother, Suad Dzanic, and a number of other local Serbs with armed rebellion against the Croatian state.

But the men were out of reach of the Croatian legal system, and the charges were later dropped under a "reconciliation" law that granted immunity to rebels not directly accused of murder.

After four years of training soldiers and procuring arms, the Croatian government launched an assault on Serbian Krajina, smashing the mini-republic's armed forces and sending tens of thousands of Serbs fleeing from the rebel-held parts of Croatia to Serbia, Montenegro and the nearby Bosnian Serb Republic.

Having reunited Krajina with the rest of the country, Croatian authorities began to turn their attention to the alleged war crimes committed by rebel Serbs.

A number of mass graves were located in Petrinja, and hundreds of bodies exhumed, including those of Marijan Siftar, Milan Krnjaic and Branko Kovacevic.

Court wanted to try Japranin on war crimes

When the Serbs fled Petrinja, they also left behind a trove of documents and videos.

These included lists of men who served in a unit of the Serbian Krajina military called the 39th Scouting and Commando Unit. Mr Japranin's name is on the list.

A local war historian and former colonel in the Croatian army, Ivica Pandza, told 7.30 this unit was ordered to scout in areas not held by the Serb forces.

In documents it is also stated they were to capture the 'living tongue'. In this sense [it] really means to capture a living person and to get as much intelligence as possible from them," he said.

Former Croatian army colonel Ivica Pandza

"In documents it is also stated they were to capture the 'living tongue'. This is a military term which is used in all the armies. In this sense 'living tongue' really means to capture a living person and to get as much intelligence as possible from them," he said.

The wheels of justice began to turn after the exhumation of the bodies - albeit slowly. In 2003, a warrant was issued by Croatian authorities for Mr Japranin's arrest.

In 2006, Kristina Siftar told a court Mr Japranin had taken her son and Milan Krnjaic away.

Another woman also told police she had seen four local Serbs taking Milan, Marijan and Branko Kovacevic away, and identified three of them, but said she had not witnessed the men being killed.

That woman's evidence was not admissible in court because she died before the hearing.

In 2009, an indictment was issued, and then in 2012, a court in Zagreb ordered Mr Japranin to be found and imprisoned while he stood trial, noting that "there is no statute of limitations with respect to the act of a war crime".

Conflicting stories about trio's fate

And there the matter might have rested, as long as Mr Japranin did not try to re-enter Croatia.

However, somebody in the Croatian justice system decided to notify Interpol that Mr Japranin is a wanted man, and some time within the past few months, his name appeared alongside some of the world's most infamous fugitives from justice on the Interpol "red list".

Mr Japranin arrived in Australia in 2000 as a stateless person, but was subsequently granted Australian citizenship.

He settled in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and his parents and brother live nearby. He works as a tradesman and coaches his daughter's soccer team.

He told 7.30 he played no part in the deaths of any Croats in Petrinja, and never served in a military formation.

He also said his human rights are being infringed because he can no longer travel.

My child was 39 years of age. Of course I miss him. That was everything to me.

Kristina Siftar

The Australian Federal Police would not comment on "another country's investigation", but the Interpol liaison office embedded within the AFP was aware in 2012 that Mr Japranin was wanted, and was living in Australia.

Any request for Mr Japranin's arrest and extradition must come from the Croatian government.

Despite the allegations that Mr Japranin was a member of the town's Serb militia, and that he led the men away to their deaths, there appears to be some confusion about what exactly happened to Marijan, Milan and Branko.

Court documents from 2012 say he, along with others, took the three men into the woods and executed them in cold blood with a firearm.

However, other witnesses report the men might have been killed with a hand grenade.

A local man also gave a statement to police in 2004, saying Kovacevic might have been murdered in a makeshift prison in the town.

Mrs Siftar is cautious about accusing Mr Japranin of her son's murder, as she did not see the killing with her own eyes, but she says he must explain what exactly his role in the killings was.

"My child was 39 years of age, Of course I miss him. That was everything to me. If he were here I certainly would not be here at the moment," she told 7.30.

"I was personally there when he took him away from my yard. He now does not want to admit it, as if I were lying. He did not just disappear like that."